About Me

Eli Kantor is a labor, employment and immigration law attorney. He has been practicing labor, employment and immigration law for more than 36 years. He has been featured in articles about labor, employment and immigration law in the L.A. Times, Business Week.com and Daily Variety. He is a regular columnist for the Daily Journal.
Telephone (310)274-8216; eli@elikantorlaw.com. For more information, visit beverlyhillsimmigrationlaw.com and and beverlyhillsemploymentlaw.com

Translate

Thursday, August 03, 2017

Mexico denies president called Trump to compliment immigration policy

Mexico is denying that its president recently called President Trump to compliment the White House’s immigration policy, saying Enrique Peña Nieto has not contacted Trump in weeks.

Trump earlier this week implied that Mexico’s president had praised the White House in a call for policies that lowered levels of illegal immigration on Mexico’s southern border.

“Even the president of Mexico called me,” Trump said at a Cabinet meeting. “They said their southern border, very few people are coming because they know they’re not going to get through our border, which is the ultimate compliment.”

Mexico’s government fired back at the White House on Wednesday, saying that the leaders’ last contact was at the Group of 20 (G-20) summit last month.

Peña Nieto “has not had any recent telephone communication with President Donald Trump,” Mexico’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement reported by The Associated Press.

According to the AP, Peña Nieto and Trump last spoke about immigration during their meeting at the G-20 summit.

During that conversation, Peña Nieto reportedly told Trump that deportations of Mexicans from the United States had fallen 31 percent in the first few months of Trump’s presidency from the same period last year. He also remarked that Central American migrants entering Mexico illegally had also fallen during this period.

Trump has remained critical of Mexico, which he targeted as a presidential candidate, since his inauguration.

In June, he ripped Mexico’s government on Twitter, tweeting out a report that names it the second-deadliest country in the world, behind only Syria.

“Mexico was just ranked the second deadliest country in the world, after only Syria. Drug trade is largely the cause. We will BUILD THE WALL!” Trump tweeted.

The Boy Scouts are also denying Trump’s claim that their leader told the president his politically charged speech at their national jamboree was “the greatest” the organization ever heard.